Simon Kinberg says the X-Men sequel will be “extraordinarily ambitious”

July 19, 2012 - By Liam Goodwin

Last month we heard that 20th Century Fox had registered the title Days of Future Past with the MPAA Title Registration Bureau, and it was also discovered that the website domain names X-MenDaysofFuturePast.com and DaysofFuturePast.com had been claimed by the studio.

This was a big indication that the X-Men: First Class sequel could follow the 1981 two-issue story arc of the same name, which involved alternate timelines and mutant-hunting robots. While screenwriter and producer Simon Kinberg didn’t confirm anything at ComicCon, he did say the sequel will be “extraordinarily ambitious” and a “celebration of the X-Men movies”.

I can tell you that it’s going really well, and I can tell you that I’ve been working closely with Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman on the script of the movie and that we hope to be shooting in Spring of next year to come out in July of 2014 and that I’m really excited about it, because the only thing I can say, because I have to be extraordinarily vague about it, because the last time I talked to anybody about it, I got in trouble…big trouble…what I can tell you is [that] it’s extraordinarily ambitious. It is unlike the other X-Men movies and yet very much a celebration of the X-Men movies.”

He also said the success of X-Men: First Class has given them a licence to make a “bigger movie than the last in physical scope”, that will also be “epic” and “mythic in a way as well.”

The Days of Future Past storyline alternates between present day, in which the X-Men fight Mystique’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and a future timeline caused by the X-Men’s failure to prevent the Brotherhood from assassinating Senator Robert Kelly. In this future universe, Sentinels rule the United States, and mutants live in internment camps.

If this is the intended direction of the sequel elements will be changed here and there, much like what was done with the God Loves, Man Kills storyline for X2. With future and alternate timelines is also presents an opportunity for members of the original X-cast (Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry etc) to make an appearance and turn it into an event movie for comic book fans.

This movie sounds really good on paper (on the Blog), and it could be extremely good is done well. First Class was a great movie, but that was probably because it was kept Small. Big is not always better, but we have to wait!